That ’28 Years Later’ Poem in the Trailer, Explained

The trailer for Danny Boyle’s highly anticipated film, 28 Years Later, just dropped on the internet, and it’s evoking all the spooky and terrifying vibes. Set to hit theaters in June 2025, the film reunites Boyle with writer Alex Garland, each of whom worked on the film’s predecessor, 28 Days Later, back in 2002. Their latest endeavor is set nearly 30 years after their initial film and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Jack O’Connell, and welcomes back Cillian Murphy, although the extent of his role is still unknown. However, keen-eyed viewers believe he appears in the trailer in an alarming and ghastly skeletal form, but it’s unlikely that is the full scope of his role.

Despite all the frightening visuals in the trailer, the creepiest part of it all is most certainly the reciting of a 20th-century military poem. The trailer begins with a group of children watching the Teletubbies and quickly shifts to an eerie recording of Taylor Holmes’ 1915 recording of Rudyard Kipling’s poem entitled Boots. As if the world of 28 Years Later wasn’t scary enough, the poem adds another level of fear and provides a deeper meaning for what’s to come.

What Is the Poem About in the ’28 Years Later’ Trailer?

Release Date

June 20, 2025

Main Genre

Horror

First published in 1903 in Kipling’s collection The Five Nations, Boots represents the repetitive thoughts of a British Army infantryman during the Second Boer War at the turn of the 20th century. The poem conveys the forced marching of a soldier, and its first four words in every line are intended to be read at the rate of two words per second. As a result, the cadence of the poem replicates the same marching pattern that British foot soldiers were accustomed to.

In 1915, a spoken-word rendition by Holmes was recorded and subsequently used by U.S. military SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) schools for its psychological effect. One training exercise in particular required soldiers to listen to the recording repeatedly in a small room in an effort to prepare them for surviving capture and possible torture by enemy forces.

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Meant to prepare military personnel for war, the schools taught various other skills but primarily focused on survival and evading capture and aimed to provide the necessary skills required to survive in particularly hostile environments. Emphasizing the importance of following a military code of conduct, the schools and the corresponding poem clearly highlight the belief that following a certain set of rules keeps a soldier alive, no matter how volatile the environment might be.

What Does the Poem Have to Do With ’28 Years Later?’

Given the horrendous world in which 28 Years Later exists, Kipling’s poem in the trailer is particularly creepy. Initially heard over images of an island’s community rules and the calmness of their order, it doesn’t take long for those images to turn more violent in the face of the poem’s crescendoing effect. As stated in the poem, “There is no discharge in the war,” which clearly embodies the inability of those in the film to escape the war they’ve been forced to march in.

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Furthermore, the inherently eerie sound of the recording in the trailer surprisingly provides a much more disturbing effect than John Murphy’s score in the original film might have. The irony of a military poem rife with order and rules amid the very chaotic images of the rage virus cannot be overstated. Clearly meant to evoke terror, the content of Kipling’s and the sound of Holmes’ voice is meant to evoke the anxiety and fear ever-present in Boyle’s world. 28 Years Later is scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 20, 2025.